Showing posts with label colored gemstones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label colored gemstones. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Million Dollar Rubies Sold


Imagine owning massive top-quality rubies! Let's take a look at 2 stones sometimes called the king of gems that were sold in 2023. 

First up is The Sunrise Ruby, a rare Cartier Burmese ruby, set with 2 side diamonds in a platinum ring. Last year it was sold at auction by Christie's from the estate of Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten for $13,055,000, less than predicted due to a bit of controversy that is unrelated to the gemstone's origin. In 2015 Ms. Horten paid $30,300,000 for the ruby. According to Christie's, the price was higher in 2015 due to the back and forth of 2 bidders at the time.

BelowπŸ‘‡are different angles of the cushion shape, brilliant cut Sunrise Ruby. It weighs 25.59 carats.

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Mozambique, a country in Southeastern Africa, is emerging as a rich source of premium-quality rubies. Our 2nd gemstone is a Mozambique ruby that fetched $34,800,000 at Sotheby's last year, setting a new record for the price of a ruby. 
Called the Estrela de Fura (Porchugese for Star of Fura) Ruby, at 101 carats uncut, it's both the largest gem-quality ruby ever found, as well as, the highest price ever paid at auction! Cut down to 55.22 carats by gem dealer and cutter Francois Garaude into a cushion shape, this stunning ruby bears remarkable symmetry and balance. It is gigantic, unheated, and clean making it a rare natural ruby. The ruby's pigeon blood color is equal to the celebrated Burmese rubies. Under ultraviolet light, the Estrela de Fura ruby radiates a strong fluorescence. 

In addition to oohing and ahhing, all I can say is a regular person's rubies are very small and flat in comparison!😊

BTW, The Sunrise and Estrela de Fura rubies were acquired by anonymous private collectors. The new owner of Ms. Horten's ruby lives in the Middle East. I always hope these huge ideal gemstones eventually end up in a museum so the public too can see them.

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And now here are jewels for average people like you and me. πŸ˜› 

BelowπŸ‘‡are smaller, less-perfect rubies from Macy's or Saks. Perhaps not heirloom nuggets, yet they are pretty too, no? Each piece is 1-9/10 carats, a versatile size that can be worn both daily and to galas ... and the cost is more attainable. Remember my motto: First a dreamer, then a realist!




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Thursday, June 10, 2021

Zircon Is A Favorite of Gem Dealers And Collectors

Another radiate gemstone, a favorite of jewelers and collectors yet usually overlooked by the general public, is a zirconium silicate (ZrSiO4), which is its chemical name. Known in the jewelry trade as zircon, the mineral rates a 7.5 on Moh's Scale of Hardness, making it durable to wear as jewelry. Don't confuse zircon with cubic zirconia, a cheap lab created diamond substitute, only their names are similar.

Natural zircon is one of the earth's oldest gemstones (at 4 billion years old) and rivals diamonds in sparkle.

In fact, zircon has a higher refractive index (a/k/a brilliance; or sparkle) than sapphires, rubiesemeralds, spinels or tanzanites (and tanzanite is priced as a gemstone for its high refractive index). It turns out, zircon has more fire than most colorless and colored gemstones. Brilliance is the colorless (or white) light emitted from a gemstone, while fire is the colored light, or sparkle you see when the stone is exposed to light. Zircon has both brilliance and fire in abundance, glittering nearly as much as a diamond. It's a semi-precious, affordable stone.
Natural zircon comes in an array of beautiful colors: Blue is the most popular and green is the rarest. Historically, blue zircon comes from Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Burma. White zircon, with its excellent brilliance and fire characteristics, makes a very fine budget-friendly diamond-substitute for anyone who desires a natural, as opposed to, a lab created gemstone. Jewelers call "yellow" honey zircon. Tanzania has become a main source for mining red, orange and honey zircon. As in the case of other gemstones, heat treatment is allowed in the jewelry world to enhance zircon's colors and the process doesn't lessen its value. Heat is an accepted treatment because it doesn't weaken, nor change the composition of the natural crystal, and heat is the same element that over billions of years caused the formation of precious and semi-precious stones.
Photo: JTV
Unlike either diamonds or manmade cubic zirconia, zircon is birefringent -- making it unique -- it has two different refractive indices [indexes] whereby a ray of light is spilt by polarization into two rays of light, each taking slightly different paths.

So now that you know more about zircon, do you want one? If so, what color appeals to you?


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